The disclosures herein relate generally to computer systems and more particularly to cooling a computer with an active heat sink including a hot plug fan.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Processor power levels are rising rapidly. Latest generation chips are already providing very difficult thermal challenges. The amount of money spent per unit on an adequate thermal solution continues to increase to meet these power demands.
One of the easiest and economical ways to make a highly efficient cooling system is to use an active heat sink, i.e. a heat sink with a fan blowing/drawing air directly through the heat sink fins. The major drawback of this approach is that if the heat sink fan fails you have to shut down the system and replace the whole heat sink. Fans are one of the major failure modes in a system, so having to shutdown every time one fails is very undesirable.
Hot plug fans, i.e. being able to swap a failed fan while the system is still running, is a very advantageous component to have on an information handling system such as a server. It""s always at the top of the xe2x80x9cwish listxe2x80x9d from a marketing position.
Systems have used active heat sinks for years. However, in these cases the fans were attached to the heat sink in such a way that the heat sink had to be replaced if the fan failed. Replacing a heat sink means shutting down the system, which equates to server down time.
Therefore, what is needed is a computer cooling system that includes an active heat sink utilizing a hot plug fan.
One embodiment, accordingly, provides an active heat sink apparatus including a heat sink member and a fan support adjacent the heat sink member. A fan is mounted on the fan support. A first connector is connected to the fan and a second connector is adjacent the heat sink member for providing a mating connection with the first connector.
A principal advantage of this embodiment is that the computer system has the benefits of an active heat sink and the fans are hot plug fans.